Sierra Rasberry

Before I started architecture school, I had this notion of the glamorous life an architect would live. I expected to have total creativity and power over the designs I developed, to honestly make a lot of money, and for school to be a lot of fun! (like arts and crafts on steroids)

Since then I have grown and developed my interpretation of what the reality of architecture has become to me. The denotation of architecture/architecture school/the practice of architecture is quite different to the connotation of these things to an actual architect versus someone not versed in the practice of architecture. From the time we are born, our minds are sponges that absorb the information and experiences that we are subjected to. No two people are exactly alike, (even twins live individual lives, though almost biologically identical) and therefore each person is entitled to their own opinions and interpretations of the signs and symbols around them.

Like Mr. Willoughby explained in class, something as simple as the function of a chair shouldn't have to be interpreted or contemplated over in order for you to understand “sit here”. On the other hand, a throne is still a chair, but sitting isn't the primary function. It represents “regalness” or “royalty” to whoever sits there. It is only through the associated symbols and signs that a throne portrays can one derive such meanings. A caveman would not know that the significant differences between a simple chair and a throne. Although he would be able to tell a difference between them, and most likely figure that its a the right height to sit upon, but since he would have no past cultural experiences, he would not know.

Over the Christmas break, I was commissioned to draw two portraits for a family. My goal as the artist is to portray the given images of the family as realistically and accurately as possible. If I took total artistic freedom with it and did whatever I felt like doing, I would not get paid. Although this is a technical skill (to be able to graphically portray someone through means of media accurately) I don't consider it very artistic. As I began to sketch out the faint outlines of the face, I noticed that I was drawing what features I liked best first. First the eyes, the mouth, the nose, etc... As I contemplated why I was doing this, it was because I had an association with these things. Because I have seen thousands of faces in my life, and because when I talk to someone, I usually am watching their eyes and mouth, I was subconsciously drawing what I knew best first. Now, my goal was to do the same job as a copy machine, but the difference between a copy machine and myself is that subjectively know what it is I am drawing and not just objectively. I stopped about halfway through the process of my sketch, and turned both my canvas and the image I was copying from upside down (a technique we used in Mr. Green's freehand drawing class). Although its the same exact image, it appeared completely different because my brain was no longer processing it as “face, eyes, nose”. It was now processing it as shapes, lines, and values—the way I should be processing it. This proved to be very helpful indeed.

If for some reason a person that had never seen a face before was asked to copy a photograph similar to the one I had to do, he may not have had the same dilemma I faced since he had no experiences with the human face to begin with. Although an architect may have an idea or concept that drives the design of a building, the only way for one to be able to derive those same ideas or concepts is to have had similar experiences that the architect had. Architects have to figure out what it is everyone can relate to and translate that into his/her own conceptual expression. When Louis Kahn says “In the end, the beginning must be felt” he really means to say “In the end you must feel what I felt in the beginning”--a cultural bridge of human experience. Take a show life Family Guy; most of the humor is based upon referencing recent events in American society. In one episode Stewie and Brian try to get discharged from the army. Their first idea is to display their homosexual interest in one-another—If this joke were presented two years ago, it wouldn't be socially acceptable, but since the lift on the “don't ask don't tell” policy, its now very public in the media. Through referencing such events in our culture, we are able to find common ground with one another.